In today's world, it is not just selling the product and the process you opted for while making a sale is important but, also how your customers feel when they engage with you matters.Sales as an act can be really challenging especially when you know that it comes in with limited training.

Most folks who end up in the sales departments are not the ones who studied sales as a subject

So, not everyone who reaches there has gone through the right process to understand how the real world processes in sales work.

The best way for a person to start off in the sales section is by focusing on how to find and develop their potential customers, which is called prospecting.

Now, let’s focus into the details of what exactly prospecting is.

Prospecting is an extremely significant part of the sales process, as it assists in developing a conduit of the potential customers out there.

Prospecting does not only create a pipeline of potential customers buts also positions you as a trusted advisor.

A very important part of the sales cycle is to understand whom you are actually targeting, taking that right certain approach to reach them, understanding and analyzing what their needs are in order to increase your chances of getting their attention and interest and furthermore, getting a better return for the time and energy you’ve invested in.

In sales, a specific type of prospecting is used which is known as “Strategic Prospecting” which is basically a process that is designed to recognize, categorize, qualify and prioritize the sales opportunities, whether they represent the potential prospects or the business that can be gained from the existing customers.

It is a part of the modern sales prospecting techniques that help you trace out the better leads, whom you can serve, engage and eventually add to your customer board.

Some of the finest sale prospecting tips are:

For Your Team

1) Be a Trusted Advisor

The job of a salesperson doesn’t end with a successful sale, it’s more than that.

After the sale is made, you should be that go-to person for your customer in case they need some sort of assistance or have any concerns about the product.

This way you are being a resource for your customer, whom they wouldn’t mind giving something in return.

Now, this “something” can be in the form of some referrals whom you might look up to when you’re looking for a potential prospect.

2) First Contact

The first contact that you make with your prospect should not be a cold one.

In fact, you should use a warmer approach by familiarizing the prospects about yourself, your company’s affiliation before you drop your first mail to them or maybe the first call.

You can use different social media platforms to accomplish your first step of connecting.

3) It's Not About Making a Sale

A profound foreground to a making a successful sale is to first create a healthy relationship with your customer that is based on trust and accountability.

This helps your prospect to be more comfortable with you and it gets easier for you to make them enter the sales funnel more effectively.

4) Organized Prospecting

Measurably, according to a lot of salespersons, prospecting is one of the most challenging parts of the sales funnel.

So, you need to do it an extremely organized and planned manner. Blocking off the time is one of the ways, this way you get to keep a better track of your prospects, conversations and the returns.

5) Social Selling Strategy

Being a salesperson, you should try spending more time on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. as there you might be able to come across a lot of prospects who might be looking for the similar product or service that you are providing.

At such platforms, you can answer their queries and also provide them with relevant content that can prove to be of matter to them.

6) Follow-Up & Follow-Up

This helps you create better grounds of trust and relationship with them and gives an impression that you aren’t doing it just for the heck of it.

There needs to be some relevant information flowing through these follow-ups.

7) Entice Visually

You can increase your outreach by putting up visually enticing stuff in the form of graphics, videos etc. as means to catch the eyes of the people who can be interested in the product or sales that you are offering.

These posts should have some quality information that you convey through them so that the possibilities of you holding onto the prospects increases.

8) Ask For Referrals

If you’ve put in so much of effort to crack a deal, you are not supposed to leave your reward.

This reward is basically "asking for referrals for the new prospects" who might according to your customer would be interested in your product.

This can be a part of the follow-ups that happen after the sale which can help you hold on to the existing client and also look up for a referral from them. (P.S: You gotta strike the iron while its hot!)

For Team Leaders

1) Scripted Source

As a leader, when you get a new sales person on board, it makes for your responsibility to provide them with a basic referencing script.

This helps your team avoid unnecessary pauses, a language that doesn’t sound convincing and also to respond to the customers and prospects in a certain disciplined manner.

(P.S: Even if it is scripted, make sure it sounds natural and is altered as per the requirements of the conversation.)

2) Transparency in Workflow

As a leader, you need to make sure that a sense of transparency exists amongst your team.

This works as a motivation for the ones who are not matching up to their goals and encourages the ones who are already performing well.

3)Incentivize Them

For every person, you can have a board that shows their progress and on the basis of the progress rate, you can incentivize them annually or bi-annually.

This works as a motivation for everyone and gives them a sense of urgency to achieve certain milestones.

4) Segmentation

All your salespersons are not the same and exhibit different potentials, for everyone isn’t able to give their best in a group or a maybe individually.

For such scenarios, it is better to segment them based on their strengths and weaknesses and also further, segment the customers and prospects.

This helps to get the most out of the deals in a way that the customer is also dealt with in a way which he/she understands.

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